A PENSIONER claims a hospice shop has lost a flip-down television worth hundreds of pounds, which she gave it by mistake.

Jean Caller, 73, says she refuses to accept Greenwich and Bexley Cottage Hospice’s explanation that it was broken and was thrown away.

Mrs Caller, of Peters Close, Welling, said she added the television by mistake to items she dropped off at the hospice shop in Pickford Lane, Bexleyheath.

The television, which cost £750, flipped down from one of the cupboards in her kitchen.

She removed the television while updating her kitchen, and it was waiting to be reinstalled.

Mrs Caller said she realised her mistake two days after she visited the charity shop, and went back to retrieve it.

She said: “They told me my donations were among goods not yet sorted and let me have a look through all the items.

“But it wasn’t there.”

She then visited the hospice’s Welling shop where all electrical goods are inspected before sale.

There she was told the shop would contact her when the television was found.

Eventually, Mrs Caller called the hospice’s chief executive Jim Bennett.

She said: “He was very helpful and found out it could not have been sold because no form for the sale of electrical goods had been completed.”

He launched an investigation.

But Mrs Caller was unhappy to be told three months after the television first went missing, it had been thrown away because, on inspection, it was broken.

She said: “If the hospice had admitted they sold it, I would have been happy to split the price with it and leave it at that.

“But I cannot understand why I could not find it at either shop, and I refuse to believe there was anything wrong with it when I handed it over.”

The hospice said: “The hospice regrets Mrs Caller feels disappointed about the outcome of the investigation conducted following her complaint.

“Greenwich and Bexley Cottage Hospice receives significant support from the community and a high volume of donated goods.

“In the unfortunate circumstance such as this, the hospice endeavours to locate and return goods donated in error.

“Unfortunately on this occasion it was not possible to return the item in question.”